Today's motor vehicles typically have a plurality of subsystems that use fluids. The hydraulic or air brakes, the air-conditioner, the fuel system, the windshield washers, the coolant system, even hydraulically or pneumatically operated seat adjusters and lock systems rely on small-diameter tubes which conduct the various fluids and gases throughout the vehicle. The tubes for the brake and fuel systems, in particular, must run from the front to the back of the vehicle.
As a rule these tubes are manufactured by a subcontractor who supplies them to the assembly plant ready to use. Thus each tube has a predetermined rectified length, is provided at its ends with fittings that are matched to the various fluid-using elements of the vehicle that the tube is to be attached to. As the vehicle moves along its assembly line, it passes a station where the tubes are fitted to it and secured to the body of the vehicle by appropriate clips.
The tubes are extremely bulky and hard-to-handle prior to installation. They are often bent into three-dimensional shapes that are difficult to handle and they are relatively fragile, so that a certain percentage is damaged prior to installation. Some of the tubes are inevitably kinked and rendered unusable, in particular the light-duty and plastic ones. To simplify the situation it is known to provide mainly straight tubes that are fitted with short bent sections at their ends so they can be connected to the fluid-using elements of the vehicle, but this solution is expensive and adds another potential leak site to the tube.